In a single electronic platform, the WHO’s Communicable Disease Global Atlas is
bringing together for analysis and comparison standardized data and statistics for
infectious diseases at country, regional, and global levels. The analysis and
interpretation of data are further supported through information on demography,
socioeconomic conditions, and environmental factors. In so doing, the Atlas
specifically acknowledges the broad range of determinants that influence patterns
of infectious disease transmission.

Over the next year, the system aims to
provide a single point of access to data, reports and documents on the major
diseases of poverty including malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, the diseases on
their way towards eradication and elimination (such as guinea worm, leprosy,
lymphatic filariasis) and epidemic prone and emerging infections for example
meningitis, cholera, yellow fever and anti-infective drug resistance.

The database will be updated on an ongoing basis and in addition to epidemiological
information, the system aims to provide information on essential support
services such as the network of communicable diseases collaborating centres,
the activities of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network among others.